After leaving Venice, we took a looong train all the way down to Naples so we could tour Pompeii for the day. We drug out of bed at around 5:30AM and caught a 7:00 train that direction.

We finally arrived at around 2:30PM and took a city train around 30 minutes out of town. I wanted this to be a day trip, so we didn't take time to book any accomodations in Naples.

Besides, the Lonely Planet guide book says that Naples is just getting over crime problems (heh!).

I wanted to get a guided tour of the ruins, but unfortunately they were all gone by the time we got there. But we rented one of those guided tours and off we went ourselves. Let me start by saying that the city is MUCH, MUCH bigger than I expected from what we read in school. I got the impression it was 20 or 30 houses, but it is at least a half mile square and includes a gladiatorial arena, a 1000 seat music amphitheatre, and all the trappings of a full city. In fact, even though the ruins have been known for hundreds of years, they have yet to fully excavate them.

In any event, Brenton and I wandered around through the heat, looking at the various buildings in their states of disrepair. Some were remarkably well preserved given that these buildings were 2000 (or more) years old. There was a neat array of Gods that they prayed to, including the Roman lot as well as Egyptian ones.

After learning a bit about their lives, we were worn out and ready for the 1.5 hour train

ride back north towards Rome. That's when things got interesting...

The train was basically full when we got on so we stood up in the area between two train cars. There were a couple of dozen teenagers in the cars, being boisterous and loud. One Italian mother seemed to be lecturing one of the boys about proper behaviour. Well, I get a funny feeling and ask Brenton to move over next to me. He asks why since he's but two steps away, and I just ask him to come stand by me. At this point we are both next to the door and we pull up to our first stop. A handful of the teenage kids exit and then a few seconds later a few kids run out of the car and hold the doors open, yelling. At least 6 or 8 are in the car, dropping the windows to yell. At this point I pull Brenton behind me to the corner of the car, though we are still next to the door. No sooner than I do that does someone outside the train break a window directly next to our head.

Now the screaming and running around the car increases. Several guys go between holding the doors open (next to us) and going back into the car to yell from the window. Another window breaks inside the car. One of the guys inside pulls a knife and runs beside us to the door. Another guy inside the car sits down into the seat and kicks out a window. More knives are pulled and the guys continue running back between the door and the car. The knife wielding guys aren't really paying attention to what's going on and they are literally inches in front of my face as they are running back and forth.

An Italian mom sees Brenton crying and motions us to come into the next car with her kids.

At this point that car is overcrowded already, but we squeeze in. The violence is still going on and spilling into the car we are in. We push back further and eventually go into the next car after that. Brenton is scared and crying and she wipes his tears away. Though she only speaks Italian, their eyes say everything. He thanks her and she nods. She's speaking in rapid fire Italian to others in the car, and a rough and tumble Italian guy that reminded me of Fonzi pats him on the head and shoulder. The panic eventually subsided after the kids dispersed, and the train started moving again. So goes our brush with death.

On to Rome for the last part of our journey. It's been long, exciting, boring, and a lot of new experiences have been had. I'm ready to come home, hang with my babies, pet my dogs, and get back to work and BJJ.